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Creator

Vassar, Matthew, 1792-1868

Date

January 10, 1862

Text

Poughkeepsie, N.Y., Jan. 10 1862 C. Swan - Secretary Vassar Female College Dear Sir—— We see the propriety of a meeting of the Board of Trustees of the College say about the 25 of February next at this place and desire you to confer with the Chairman of the Board & if he concurs notify the Trustees of the meeting----- M Vassar M.P. Jewett

1. … May 2 1868 Mr. Matthew Vassar Senior Dear sir your 76 birthday has now passed & I hope pleasantly & … to you. I was unwilling to take any risk of marring your enjoyment of that day, & therefore deferred writing a word in regard to you of … 10~ until now. Your assurance in that note "that you have had occasion personally to withdraw your confidence" from me, is of course ample as regards yourself, & yet your letter throughout, leaves the impression that something... Show more1. … May 2 1868 Mr. Matthew Vassar Senior Dear sir your 76 birthday has now passed & I hope pleasantly & … to you. I was unwilling to take any risk of marring your enjoyment of that day, & therefore deferred writing a word in regard to you of … 10~ until now. Your assurance in that note "that you have had occasion personally to withdraw your confidence" from me, is of course ample as regards yourself, & yet your letter throughout, leaves the impression that something is wrong somewhere. I cannot help but notice that since one man has so diligently counted your … … a year or two, & assumed such overshadowing, & as I believe injurious, influence in all affairs teaching the college, that there seems to be a coolness between us, & a general tone of uneasiness & suspicion everywhere. If he has not poisoned your sentiments toward me, it is because he could not or dared not and there are few things he would not dare, & would not attempt, to carry through his intense desire to elevate himself over you, and over the college. I must add what I most throughly believe-it is that, that man's influence is disastrous in both directions. So shadow ever fell upon your college work, so baneful, so unpopular, so hated, as his. I speak from facts, and I appeal to more than twenty years of your confidence, during which I never deceived you, during which I have fought your battles, sometimes almost alone, for the truth of what I tell you. More-upon the faith of [more] years of our intimacy, I [tell] you what I was never more ready to do my full duty toward you, & toward the college, than the past year. I have done … fully, all I have been called upon or allowed to do. My crime has heretofore been, if any, that I did too much, & was too much your friend. How, if there be any crime, it is that I do too little. The power to art, the opportunity to art, in … from me on purpose to open the way to prejudiceme [with] you. If he has succeeded in poisoning you toward me, he has not succeeded in doing it at the college, he is known there as I know him and as he is-as a [harsh] and … … as well as user & abuser of power. That such a man, could come in prejudice a confidence so long, so tried, so entirely … as mine has been to you, is the keenest blow which has ever struck me, and has for the [present] undermined my health & unfitted me for my pursuit. If he has, these have I been too confident in my own integrity, and in my faith on you. I feel, Mr Vassar, that I have sacrificed my business, the best year of my life, & now my health for you and the college-for the college mainly on your account. Not for …-because no man has money enough to make me his friend=nor to here me to do much that I have done for you-some most trying … of it without any pretense of {Ray{-and yet, I could not have done, no father could have done what I have in that respect, without the assurance that there dependent on me should have … are education. I ... on you for that [write] the most absolute confidence, because of your promises, & because it did not seem possible in the nature of things, that you could die satisfied without it. During all these past years no man or men could have made me believe what seems now to have transpired. What a keen & horrible disappointment it is to me no one can ever know. It haunts poisons every unoccupied moment of my life, I find it on my pillow when I lie there, and it is there always when I awake. But poor as I am, it is not the pecuniary loss to my family, that bites me with the sharpest …-it stabs my faith in all human friendship & profession. It mortifies me before a whole community, who know with what absolute & unyielding devotion, I have stood for you in every event, for more than twenty years. When your will is read, and I am not there as one of your confidential managers, whom you trusted to the last, it will appear that management & …, or something worse, have triumphed over a lifetime of friendship & absolute devotion. I have availed to hear of the intention & 2 promises & reliance of years. And now, Mr Vassar, I have to bet you to inform me what are those things you have "learned" or observed, "indicating of late a want of friendship usually manifested by me to you". As man or woman living can … you me thing, without falsehood, indicating any lack of what friendship on my part. and I am utterly at a loss to know what you can have observed which indicates it. We have not met as after perhaps, but have I ever to this day failed to see or aid you when your slightest hint or solicitation, Have I left one thing undone which … on me to do. I could not even, nor can I now, force myself upon you. I have no … … to …, & no bitterness to avenge on others, through you, or at your expense. You are as free as ever, so far as Ii am concerned, to select your intimates & your adviseers. If I am no longer one, it is without my fault, I have felt what if you ...I satisfied I could not interfere, & yet fell myself a man. You knew I never failed you, I felt that if you no longer leaned upon me, it must be because you no longer felt the need of me. But in spite of all, second only to you that college is my child. I stood by it, & you when not one of those who surround you most was its friend. I shall be lost to every impulse & conviction pledge of my life, when I am false or indifferent to it. If you live & I live a little longer, you will see who are most its friends & yours, & you will wonder how you ever entertained a doubt. Perhaps I am to anxious- but … I guilty …, its truest friends & yours, regard its present aspects as perilous. It is not … your best conceptions, nor the highest hopes of there who know it best- and this is due to one overshadowing cause, which sooner or later will surely be removed. Though … the fault is not mine, nor is it now my fault that I have not done my duty, is awakening your attention. I must however leave the subject somewhere and it may as well he here. I do it with the strangest horrible denial of every … of indifference on my [past], to the greatest work of your life, but it come from where it may. I strive most earnestly to possess myself while I await events which cannot in any way be worse for me than they are already. If I could give you one ... omniscience I could be altogether content. I am respectfully & anxiously Yours C. Swan Show less

Creator

Vassar, Matthew, 1792-1868

Date

June 25, 1861

Text

Poughkeepsie, N.Y., June 1861 C. Swan Esqr & Sect. "Vassar Female College" Dear Sir I am just in receipt of your note of this morning transmitting an official resolution passed by the Bord of Trustees of "Vassar Female College" at their Meeting yesterday requesting me as the founder of that Institution to sit for a full lenght potrait by the distinguished artist Charles L* Elliott Esqr of New York City, and which potrait is designed to be preserved in the College... Show morePoughkeepsie, N.Y., June 1861 C. Swan Esqr & Sect. "Vassar Female College" Dear Sir I am just in receipt of your note of this morning transmitting an official resolution passed by the Bord of Trustees of "Vassar Female College" at their Meeting yesterday requesting me as the founder of that Institution to sit for a full lenght potrait by the distinguished artist Charles L* Elliott Esqr of New York City, and which potrait is designed to be preserved in the College Edifice. In reply I would most respectfully return my profound and unfeigned thanks to your honorable Bord for this distinguished com- plement,-----personaly I feel it unmerrited and can only consent to the request in consideration of the object and source from whence it emminatesr--— You will please to inform your gentlemen committee Messrs M.P. Jewett Profr Doct Nathan Bishop, and Revd EX. Magoon who have the same in charge that I will be prepared to sit at the artist Studio at any time most convienant to himself. I am dear Sir With great respect Your Obed* Serv1. M. Vassar (June 25) Show less

Creator

Swan, Cyrus

Date

May 6, 1868

Text

[…] May 6 1868 Mr M Vassar Dear Sir- It has just occurred to me that possibly you might prefer to sell the two houses-the one where I live & the one adjoining. Should you be willing to sell these to me I would be pleased to know your price. They ought to be owned by the same person situated as they are & the one in which I live needs a good deal of expense upon it. The fact that two of my children were born there, & that I have so long expected to pass my days there, make me... Show more[…] May 6 1868 Mr M Vassar Dear Sir- It has just occurred to me that possibly you might prefer to sell the two houses-the one where I live & the one adjoining. Should you be willing to sell these to me I would be pleased to know your price. They ought to be owned by the same person situated as they are & the one in which I live needs a good deal of expense upon it. The fact that two of my children were born there, & that I have so long expected to pass my days there, make me deserves of owning these if I can in any way afford it. Respectfully yours C. Swan Show less

Creator

Vassar, Matthew, 1792-1868

Date

n.d.

Text

Saturday Morning Cyrus Juan Esqr Dear Sir In a conversation with M.V. Jul. this morning he represented to me that the College was some $80,000 in debt and that as treasurer owed in Bank some 40 $50,000. that the College expenses could not be met by it receipts by many thousands dollars per year and that there was no other way to save the College from Bankruptcy in its personal liability without mortgaging or raising prices of pupil (…) to 450 or $500 of course this latter acting I approve... Show moreSaturday Morning Cyrus Juan Esqr Dear Sir In a conversation with M.V. Jul. this morning he represented to me that the College was some $80,000 in debt and that as treasurer owed in Bank some 40 $50,000. that the College expenses could not be met by it receipts by many thousands dollars per year and that there was no other way to save the College from Bankruptcy in its personal liability without mortgaging or raising prices of pupil (…) to 450 or $500 of course this latter acting I approve even if it lessen our number of pupils- our conversation began about his slacking to pay up the small Bill accumulated against the College & of M. (…) anxiety to have them paid off before he makes up his (…) current to be laid before the Trustees. All of which he reply’d that was of no consequence. Matthew means all right, but at times he gets frightened (Then comes dilivering the surplus fright over to me- but on prying my enquiry about our indebtedness he finally said that the $80,000 included my loan of $25,000- which was a horse of another colour- much more was talk but I cannot now report- In haste M.V Show less

Creator

Vassar, Matthew, 1792-1868

Date

February 22, 1865

Text

Poughkeepsie February 22d 1866 Cyrus Swan Esqr Sec - V.F« Colledge &c. Dear Sir Your three half sheets letter handed me the other day has been perused and I find nothing therein that does not com- mand my assent and fully meets all my interogations and suggestions in my notes of the 15 and 16th addressed to the Chairman of the Executive Commit- tee and yourself, but there was another subject which I intended to have touched and which I had some weeks since taken action upon without impli-... Show morePoughkeepsie February 22d 1866 Cyrus Swan Esqr Sec - V.F« Colledge &c. Dear Sir Your three half sheets letter handed me the other day has been perused and I find nothing therein that does not com- mand my assent and fully meets all my interogations and suggestions in my notes of the 15 and 16th addressed to the Chairman of the Executive Commit- tee and yourself, but there was another subject which I intended to have touched and which I had some weeks since taken action upon without impli- cating the College directly or indirectly being rather personall interogatories, It was somewhat in this wise as my memmory serves at this moment: •Mons. Blout Dear Sir Having seen notices in several articles in the public journals of your success in intriducing to the citizens of New York your system of teaching the Culinary Art I am leade to confer with you on that subject thro1 this medium and at this time as our Exective Com* of V.F. College contemplates erecting the coming Spring an Edifice on the College grounds adapted to impart a knowledge of that art practicaly to such of the young Ladies pupils who desire to obtain such Instruction—---- with this view I am anxious as the Founder of the Institution to avail our- selves of the most improved Modern inventions of the Kitchen utensials &c altho! the College have already the most complete (in the modern sense of the term) the latest improvements and which I should like you to inspect when you could make it most convienant to visit Po'keepsie this Spring, and to confer with you in relation to the location for the Kitchen Buildings &c. Of course your expenses would be paid by us, and the Buildings were erected and ready for opperation we should want to make some arrangement with you to give the necessary Instruction to the College pupils on some terms that would be mutialaly satisfactory &c&cM— M.V. This is the substance I wrote to Mon Prof Blout as near as I can remember-----Now with regard to imparting such Instructions I sincerly believe that it will not only meet the sanction of the public, parents and pupils, but prove in future of pecuniary immoloment to the College & place a stake in advance in the catagory of making Domestic Science part of Womans higher Education and this once attained becomes one of her choicest & accomplished priviledges—— Not that she should choose it as a profession, but to adorn her household, and be able to instruct those whom may be in her employ who may know less of domestic art, and as "Knowledge is power1' which ever posses it most 'Mistress or Maid" there it will rule.—— Custom has every thing to do with human life. I well remember the time when familys all made & Baked their own Bread and failures by heavyness or otherwise was ascribed to some kind of witchcraft, and the shrinking of the boilt Pork in the pot was attributed to the phases of the Moon when the pig was killed, but I will not enumerate Cases of ignorance & superstition,— I merely allude to them to see how times and things has changed,— so with regard to physical exercises__the time was when "Skating byFemales was regarded mascu- line an extremely vulgar and clownish and by the more Sober, and bigoted class even wicked, placing the exercise on the same footing as Dancing and be only one of Satans fasicitating devices to take and delude the unwarry, but I never knew a Man or Woman that was caught in this Nett that was any the worst for it----- Not so with Theatricals, I have known many the young and some of the elder of my acquaintances ruined----- if not in purse in Morals— and I have looked in vain to find a single case where Man or Woman have been made better Citizens, Christians, Husbands or Wifes by attending them— I object not so much to what is seen or heard on the Stage as the sorroundings evincing a licentious inference before and behind it &c&c The Stage is not now what it was in the days of "Shakesphere" or even 40 to 50 years ago, nor are the usual attendants of the homogenious Masses, Men and Women of the higher standard of Morality the same by no means------- then the play-house was some what a "School of Moral reform" but now debauchery & prostitution &c----- I see just now at this day a New Theatre opened by the great cateriort) public taste "Barnum" a Theatre for the performance & Exhibition of Scriptural Selections—,—- Begining with the historical record of "Moses and the Isrealites'1 journey through the Holy have Land, next I suppose we shall have Christ & his Crusifixtion &c, now the Moral character of all these performances & thier influence must be to degrade and weaken the influences of Sacred writ upon the rising generations, but you will say that if the Stage as now conducted does tends to currup & degrade, in its legitimate conductment and proper uses it would not, but if so we must leave its reform to its friends and when it clearly and fully illuminates its virtues it will be time for its opponents to fall into its ranks &c------- I have now written nthree half Sheets" which is equivalent to yours in quanity but in substance of solid value I have nothing to say--------- I have some things more to say when at lea sure about physical health exercises, domestic Economy &c but must defer the rest to another oppor- tunity—_ Yours Respectfully &c&c M. Vassar Show less

Creator

Vassar, Matthew, 1792-1868

Date

November 2, 1865

Text

Thursday Morning November 2d 1865 Cyrus Swan Esqr D1* Sir. I received a few days since Mess DuBois & Ferris1 Bill of Garments orderd by you on my account - viz $110 = S Is it right, if so, I will remit them----- I cannot come out to the College this Morning, am suffering with a Cold and taking Medicine for it ?How are you getting on at the College----- Do you see you way clear? To-witt "Expenses, vs. Receipts11 Have you been able to ascertain the running expenses of the former-, this... Show moreThursday Morning November 2d 1865 Cyrus Swan Esqr D1* Sir. I received a few days since Mess DuBois & Ferris1 Bill of Garments orderd by you on my account - viz $110 = S Is it right, if so, I will remit them----- I cannot come out to the College this Morning, am suffering with a Cold and taking Medicine for it ?How are you getting on at the College----- Do you see you way clear? To-witt "Expenses, vs. Receipts11 Have you been able to ascertain the running expenses of the former-, this you must do if you would not be getting on the Breakers. I am bound to be as good as my word, To Lend the Corporation Twenty five Thousand dollars upon their B & Mortgage but that finishes up all my obligations Expressed or implied? Matters & things are now all in the Ex. Com. hands------ I hope all will come out right------ I wish I could lend you a helping hand, but I am not in good working condition, nor have I been for some months past. Yours in haste M. Vassar Show less

Creator

Swan, Cyrus

Date

April 4, 1868

Text

1. Poughkeepsie April 4, 1868 Mr. M Vassar, Dear Sir, Yours of the 31st ult. did not reach me at once on account of a temporary absence. For the promptness of the reply I am obliged to you, as also for all the information your letter contains. The object of my letter of the 39th March was to ascertain whether your personal feelings & intentions toward me had undergone any variation, and if they had to learn the cause of any change assuming that no slight occasion could cause or justify... Show more1. Poughkeepsie April 4, 1868 Mr. M Vassar, Dear Sir, Yours of the 31st ult. did not reach me at once on account of a temporary absence. For the promptness of the reply I am obliged to you, as also for all the information your letter contains. The object of my letter of the 39th March was to ascertain whether your personal feelings & intentions toward me had undergone any variation, and if they had to learn the cause of any change assuming that no slight occasion could cause or justify any. Though you are not quite as explicit in some respects as I had hoped, you do assure me that nothing has transpired to change our long relations to each other- certainly on your part. Let me add that I am not conscious of having given any cause- no enemy of mine or yours can say I have. I have hitherto, through everything, continued to occupy the same position toward youpersonally as during all these years while you and I were bearing the weight of the College enterprise on our shoulders almost unsupported by other aid & against numerous abstates. For have I now changed my position toward the College. You know & others know, indeed it is history, that for a long time, & in some most trying emergencies you were compelled to only almost doubly upon me & that I never failed you nor the College- never, down to the moment on which I unite. On my part therefore I say, I have given no occasion for any withdrawal of your confidence or any change in your intuitions & promises toward me- I have always treated you & your wishes with the utmost consideration and deference. That there has been some apparent coolness of attitude on your part toward one your letter states without expressing the cause- which I regret. As you say this coolness is equally true of me, let me add that I have seemed to observe some change in your manner, & I could not therefore own the risk of forcing myself when you without knowing certainly what your feelings might be-and one object of this correspondence has been to ascertain that very fast. Our relations have been so exceeding intimate & cordial that any want of confusion from you is a marked change & I have assumed must necessarily have grown out of time marked cause. Why then if there be no cause whened there be any apparent coolness. What I desire is to know the whole statement so that we may not occupy any uncertain attitude toward each other or be compelled to indulge any conjecture or surmise whatsoever. As to your intentions toward me which formed a substantial part of the enquiry in my former letter you speak of some change in your will in regard to the “freehold I occupy” without stating what that change is. May I ask that you will give me that statement. You misapprehend my intention, Mr. Vassar, if you read my letter as charging that your faith or promise or pledge to me had been broken. That letter was on of enquiry & assumed that they had not been broken & ought not reward not to be except when very sufficient & grave causeI hope now that the change in your will to which you allude, is not such as one as would justify the imputation of a breach of faith or promise to me. Exactly what details your letter regrets my not giving you I do not know or I would certainly give them. There certainly can never be any question between us nor any doubt on your mind upon the subject of some of these promises. You will readily remember that in consideration of services I have rendered you in some most critical exigencies involving reputation as well as money, and also as I believed from friendly regard. You a number of years ago promised to give me the house & (…) in which I live & make me on of your executors. That for years as after as you revisit your will you made that provision in my farm in your will, spoke to me of it while I was rendering your personal and private as well as more public service as some ultimate reward for any sacrifice I was called upon to make, spoke of it to others down to a very (…) period as a thing due me & as a fixed fact. Promises, Mr Vassar, upon which I have added & (…)2 just a s confidently as if I had the deed in my hand. Promises resting upon which I have made sacrifices in your interest which I could not offend down to a very recent period- sacrifices from which I am suffering today- promises upon the straight of which I have rendered you services on some occasions of such a nature as I have never consented to render another for which money in my hand would have been no adequate equivalent. You will also remember that within a few years past in making your wills you have provided there for the expense of educating my ten daughters freely in the College as your wards. These were your own offers & your own action without the departed solicitation from me. You put it upon the ground that it was originally due me from you & as the least you could do. You were repeatedly so kind as to offer to make some personal provision for or bequest to me which I always declined because I did not wish to seem to myself or others as aiming at any personal pecuniary object in my relations with you. There seemed a widedistinction to me between accepting from you a shelter & education for my family & any bequest for myself- the house & the education seemed to be honorable to you as well as myself & as in all respects due proper between us. The Executionship was both a pecuniary benefit to me & a high expression of your regard & in both these aspects a gratifying act. How far these provisions rest in your will as present I beg you to inform me, and if they have been changed I ask the cause. My apparent coolness between us occasions remark- a withdrawal of your confidence or a change in your intuition will leave ground for imputations upon me or both of us which will be very embarrassing. And beside that, there is unsolved an anxiety on my part which already undermines my health & renders me in a great degree incapable of necessary labor. Why should it not- I have given you the best thought & the hardest labor of the best of my life relying with a confidence amounting to certainly that I had promised, & was in that way repaying you for a home for my family & an education for my daughters- twoof the most important objects for which a man can live & which you were giving me in your will. Your determination to stand by the College I am glad to see unwavering. I pray it may be (…) become all that either of us ever desired. This determination has always existed so far as I am aware, equally as strong always while you have made provisions I speak of for my family- provisions some of them older indeed that the College but renewed often since its inception. But can the College be aided by any withdrawal of an honorable obbjection. If not a legal one, to others or by any breach of faith which will not humor you. Your memory will be judged of by your acts & no one having the character & intents of the College or your own (…)at heart will believe these can be promoted at the expense of any injustice from you to others. Your reputation as Founder of the College & as a man will inevitably float down side by side as long as either are remembered. So friend of the College or of yourself can more anxiously with man I do that the public whole know anything which can dim the honor or tarnish the reputation of either.This note is already so long that I do not speak of the allusions you make to some prejudices existing at the College. Besides , as my first letter only alluded to personal mothers it has seemed most appropriate so to confine this leaving those other matters for another time and a separate shut. Again wishing you all health I am Resp Yours C. Swan Show less

Creator

Vassar, Matthew, 1792-1868

Date

April 10, 1868

Text

Vassar College. Poughkeepsie, N.Y., April lQ*k , 1868 Mr Cyrus Swan Dear Sir I duly received your note of the 4th current & avail myself of the earliest moment from other hindrances to reply. In the first paragrap of your letter you ask01 wether my feel- ings & intentions have undergone any variation &c nand if so the cause of the change" I answer they have somewhat and the "cause" is because I had infered from your late coolness and uncordiality from your former... Show moreVassar College. Poughkeepsie, N.Y., April lQ*k , 1868 Mr Cyrus Swan Dear Sir I duly received your note of the 4th current & avail myself of the earliest moment from other hindrances to reply. In the first paragrap of your letter you ask01 wether my feel- ings & intentions have undergone any variation &c nand if so the cause of the change" I answer they have somewhat and the "cause" is because I had infered from your late coolness and uncordiality from your former accustomed manners were changed towards me, seeing you pass my house frequently and never so much as gave a casting look at the premises, and further never calling on me or that of your family for months together. I thought I was sufficiently explicit in my last letter to you in assuring you that nothing had occured or tran- spired to change our long "relations to each other" so far as I were concerned, and therefore I had no occasion personaly to withdraw my confidence of your abillities in the matter of the management of the College affairs. I acknowledge our long intimate social relation and for what you have done pecuniarly &c for me, and I in return for you during that period. Refering to another portion of your letter in speaking of the change in my testamentary Will, and asking me wether I had made any 1 'change1« I thought I was sufficiently explicit on that point in my last note, but nevertheless to be more so now I reply that some not changes of my gift to you has been made but/to an extant effecting the Education of two of your Daughters at the College, and that dona- tion alone is more than Quadruple** over any othe bequest in my Will to any other legacys in that instrument save the College, and here comes in my regretts attended to in my note to you, that circum- stances had compell^ OTe to make a change in this regard, and in so doing an alteration was neccary to make a change of my bequest to you as well as other devisees, but still my Gift to you and your family entirely exceeded in amount any other Devise, It would be delicate & propriety however in me to explain in particulars even if justice demanded it. You say I will readly remember your "services rendered to me in some critical exigences &c" I do and I also readly remember the pecuniary & sociable compensation I made you in return for them, and am quite ready to compare notes with you on that score, I am not aware Mr Swan but I have amply remunerated you for all you have ever done for me, & so far the "honors" are easy" I know nothing about what "others" have ask^you about our private affairs, nor what you have replyd to them about these relations, all I know I have performed fully my duty towards you, and I do trust I may always be able not only to you but to all others with whom I have business or social rela- tions with, of course Mr Swan you cannot expect me with my \A|\X physical infirmities to answer your long letter in detail nor would it were I be any profit to me or youAto do so, therefore I close this note by subscribing myself Yours very Respectfully MV Show less

Creator

Swan, Cyrus

Date

March 30, 1868

Text

(Confidential) Poughkeepsie March 30, 1868 Mr. Matthew Vassar, Senior My dear Sir- Were there no other reasons for this note than the rumor which reach me, and the questions which are asked of me, I should not only feel justified but compelled in justice to you as well as myself, to ask you if it be time, that your personal and confidential relations with, and intentions (…) and me have either ceased or undergone any change. If i could presume upon such a possibility. I ought to have no doubt... Show more(Confidential) Poughkeepsie March 30, 1868 Mr. Matthew Vassar, Senior My dear Sir- Were there no other reasons for this note than the rumor which reach me, and the questions which are asked of me, I should not only feel justified but compelled in justice to you as well as myself, to ask you if it be time, that your personal and confidential relations with, and intentions (…) and me have either ceased or undergone any change. If i could presume upon such a possibility. I ought to have no doubt you will tell me frankly why & to what extent. After and in view of all the occurrences of the past twenty years of friendly and professional intimacy, and certainly in presence of the entire devotion of the last 5 or 6 years on my part to your interests. I am and shall be most reluctant tobelieve in your forgetfulness or that any slight cause should have produced any change. For your sake & my own. I mistake you if I do not find you as anxious to make these enquiries fully as I am for your reply. You will need no assurance from me that no slight cause would have induced me to lay this note before you, nor that any casual consideration affecting myself, only could have compelled me. It is due to you, to my family, to myself, to the value & obligations of friendship, to the faith which should attach to promises & pledges, and in some degree to the public, that relations such as ours have been for so many years, & promises upon which so much has been staked, should remain unbroken & be redeemed, or that they suffer attraction only for very grave cause. A word from you will set the matter at rest, and I have no doubt you will hasten to speak it, and thank me for the opportunity. I have chosen to write, rather thanto such a personal interview, as it is less embarrassing, will leave no room for misunderstanding, and as in all respects most appropriate. With the best wishes, I am yours &c C. Swan Show less